curls are back in
2021
Marina Rodrigues
Digital collage
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@cuttingcollage
marinaillustrates.com
“I can’t remember when exactly but at some point in my childhood I learnt that Medusa was a hideous and dangerous monster who was slain by the hero Perseus. Recently after deciding to create a collage of this fierce woman I did some research… only now as an adult did I learn that she was born a beautiful woman with gorgeous, enviable hair, that she was a priestess loyal to the goddess Athena, that she was raped by the god Poseidon, and because he could not be punished, she was instead. A story of victim blaming, of injustice, of men abusing power, themes so relevant today already existing in a story thousands of years old. That should be the shocking bit, but the real shock is that with all our modern ideas and activist hashtags, the majority of us still only know Medusa as that hideous monster, who could turn people into stone.
So how do I want to portray Medusa? As a victim? Sure, but she’s also someone who had the strength to continually resist Poseidon’s seductions out of a steadfast loyalty to her goddess Athena. Do I want to portray her as an angry woman? Okay, but she was also compassionate enough to hide herself away after being cursed, in order to protect others from her deadly gaze, -remember Perseus sought her out. Yes, she’s all that, but she’s also a woman, of flesh and blood, a beautiful woman, as she was when born, and still is, even with snakes for hair.”
